Pop superstar Shakira is accusing Spanish authorities of “burning” her “at the stake” after settling her $15 million tax fraud case last year.
“The most frustrating thing was seeing that a state institution seemed more interested in publicly burning me at the stake than in listening to my reasons. Well, I think the time has come to hit back,” Shakira wrote in a letter published by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
The Colombian pop star, who denies any wrongdoing, said she agreed to settle and pay a $7.5 million fine in her tax fraud case in order to “protect” her two sons.
“I want to leave my children the legacy of a woman who explained her reasons calmly and in her own time, when she considered it necessary, not when she was forced to,” Shakira wrote. “I need them to know that I made the decisions I made to protect them, to be by their side and to get on with my life. Not out of cowardice or guilt.”
The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer went on to accuse Spanish authorities of trying “to make the public believe that I did not pay my taxes, when the truth is that I paid much more than I should have.’
Shakira said that when she decided to live in Spain in 2015, authorities “immediately tried to charge” her taxes for the past 10 years.
“What seemed like a polite way of formalizing my situation turned out to be a trap,” the singer wrote. “A person who spends their time touring the world cannot have the intention of being a tax resident in a place just because the person they are in a relationship with at the time lives there.”
The “Whenever, Wherever” singer also accused Spanish authorities of wanting “hunting trophies” to rebuild their credibility, claiming they did this by “intimidating people, threatening them with jail, putting our children’s peace of mind at risk and putting us under pressure to break us.”
“There may be those who wonder why I am bothering to make these statements now,” she wrote. “The first reason is my children. We have lived in an era marked by a tone of arrogance from the State, but bullying is not the same as giving reasons.”
“Things are not solved by burning one public figure at the stake every year as if it were an Inquisition trial in order to recover lost prestige,” Shakira added. “No one can write my story for me. Just like with my songs, I sing to live peacefully again, to turn the page.”
Spanish prosecutors had charged Shakira with failing to pay 6.7 million euros ($7.2 million) in tax on her 2018 income. The charges were later dropped in May.
Shakira settled a separate tax evasion legal battle with Spanish authorities in November, after she was accused of living in Barcelona between 2012 and 2014 and failing to pay 14.5 million euros ($15.4 million) in taxes.
Before settling her legal battle, the pop star was facing eight years in jail and a fine of more than $26 million.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.